Island Peak Climb from Chhukung

About 2 to 2 and a half hours' walk from Dingbuche, you will reach a small settlement called Chhukung. You will get to meet our climbing guide. We will provide you with our guide’s contact details, including their mobile number and the tea house where they are staying for the meeting. After introducing themselves, the guide will provide brief instructions about the trip itinerary, climbing route, and technical aspects, such as how to use climbing gear, safety procedures, other rules and regulations for climbing, and checking your climbing gear to ensure everything is properly organized. If you need personal gear, our guide will assist you with the rental process. You will need to bring a sleeping bag, down jacket, gloves, and Gore-Tex pants. Stay overnight at Chhukung. Please, pay all your expenses by yourself at Chhukung. The peak climbing package will be available startinga  from the base camp only.

Today your adventure trip to the Island Peak begins. After breakfast, the trip starts around 7–8 AM from Chhukung. Out of the village, the trail climbs steeply up to the south, turns east, and enters the main trail in Imja Valley. Then continue through the pleasant walk along a bank of Imja Khola and meet glacier marine get to the big rock. You will see another route on the right side that leads to the Amphu Lapcha Pass, which stretches in a southeast direction. But you will catch the lift route to the north for the Island Peak Base Camp. The path is a challenging trail through the Imja and Lhotse glacier moraines. Then the trail leads you to a wide valley flanking Island Peak, where we will set up our base camp at an elevation of 5,200 m.

If you need pre-climb training, you may participate. Our expert climbing guides will give you training on peak climbing techniques and the proper ways of using each and every piece of climbing gear, such as the ice axe, climbing boots and crampons, harness, ascender, etc. You will know how to use ropes to go up and down and to secure other roles. It is not compulsory to have prior training for Island Peak Climbing, even though we strongly believe that this training will boost your confidence and climbing skills, which will help you get to the summit of the peak, as well as fully enjoy the entire trip. The rest of the day, you may hike to High Camp (5,600 m) and back or rest for the next day’s climb. You will stay overnight in a tented camp at base camp.

Today is quite a big day for you. You need to wake up around midnight, at 12 to 1 am, and have breakfast before beginning our climb. It is important that we reach the summit before noon to avoid strong winds in the afternoon. Sometimes the strong winds might be a hurdle to a successful summit. As this is a climbing trip, you need to use climbing techniques and tools where required. 

Anyway, after Base Camp, the trail strikes off the steep hillside for several hundred meters. At first, it's a sandy trail, and it turns to grass before reaching the boulder-strewn area. You will see the slope trail further ahead, which leads to a steep rock channel. There are several short rock steps before emerging on the right side of the rock gully. You may not feel that much difficulty climbing.

After this, the trail follows a ridgeline to the summit through the glacier snout, with an exciting journey. Our guide will fix the rope if needed from here, and you need to use the fixed rope and the man rope for safety.

Normally, the fixed rope needs about 350 meters; the length depends on the climbing season and crevasses. Recently, there are appear two new crevasses with approximately 3 ½ to 4 meters long. To cross these crevasses, we will use ladders.

Finally, a steep snow slope leads you to the summit of Island Peak (6,189 m). Spending some time on the top with some pictures and joy, we will descend to the Island Peak Base Camp, where some of our crew are waiting for us. We will celebrate our successful climbing with the entire team. And walk back to Chhukung for your overnight stay, and be free for your other destination.